


Lime Blossoms

by hawksonfire



Series: Clint Barton Bingo 2019 [7]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop & Tattoo Parlor, Awesome Clint Barton, Bucky Barnes Bingo, Bucky has a tattoo, Bucky runs a flower shop, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Clint Barton Bingo, Clint is a tattoo artist, Creepy Brock Rumlow, Flowers have MEANINGS people, Fluff, Idiots in Love, LEARN THEM, M/M, MCU Kink Bingo, Misunderstandings, POV Bucky Barnes, Protective Clint Barton, Star Spangled Bingo, War Veteran Bucky Barnes, hes there for like four seconds and then hes gone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 03:20:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18490264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hawksonfire/pseuds/hawksonfire
Summary: Bucky runs a flower shop. KaBloom is his pride and joy. He's not expecting to fall for the hot tattoo artist at the new tattoo place next door, but Bucky figures he can just shove acacias and daffodils at the Hot New Guy until Bucky gets over him.It doesn't work out quite as well as he'd hoped.





	Lime Blossoms

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Bucky Barnes Bingo Y5 - Clint Barton/Hawkeye.  
> Also written for Clint Barton Bingo O4 - Flower Shop AU.  
> Also, also written for MCU Kink Bingo B2 - First Kiss.  
> Also also, also written for Star Spangled Bingo O1 - Mutual Pining.
> 
> I am never using one fic for that many fills again.

**Bucky**

Bucky hated opening the shop. He hated getting out of bed when it was still dark out, and he hated walking to the shop in the dark, and he hated the first hour or so of the shop being open where no one came in and he had to do shop-owner type things.

Don’t get him wrong, he loved his flower shop. KaBloom was his pride and joy. He bought the little building when he came back from the army to help out the old lady who owned it at the time, and then it sat empty for a few months until she came back and yelled at him to do something with it.

He didn’t know what to do and then his ma called him to remind him about getting his grandma flowers for her birthday, and it struck him. Bucky would open a flower shop. There aren’t enough in his neighbourhood and he always has to go to the overpriced one six blocks in the opposite direction of his ma’s house.

So Bucky opened a flower shop. It took a couple of months, but one day Tony Stark blew into his store and tried to buy everything he had - said something about an apology bouquet? Bucky refused to sell him everything and made him a simple bouquet of bellflowers, rue, honeysuckle, jasmine, a few white roses and Star of Bethlehems to symbolize apology.

Tony came back the next day and promised to only buy Bucky’s flowers in the future. Immediately after that, business started booming. Tony denies any knowledge of promoting his business, but Bucky has his suspicions.

“ _Just change your opening hours, Buck,_ ” Bucky grumbles, mocking Steve, “ _It’s your business, Buck._ ”

“Fuck off Steve, the hell you know about running a business anyway.” Bucky unlocks the front door and flips on the lights, tossing his jacket behind the counter. He waters the flowers quickly and flips the sign to ‘Open’.

Before he’s even made it back to the counter, the bell above the door rings. “I need flowers!”

Bucky turns and raises an eyebrow, unimpressed. “Came to the right place. Reason?”

The guy grins sheepishly. “Forgot an anniversary yesterday.”

Bucky turns away and rolls his eyes, making sure to keep his voice cheery. “That sucks, pal. Lemme whip somethin’ up for you. Allergies or preferences?”

“She really likes lilies,” the guy says hesitantly.

“Alright, I'll stick ‘em in there,” Bucky says. He grabs a couple orange lilies and some asters, along with some bellflowers and red carnations, and arranges them in an eye-pleasing manner. He ties it off with a ribbon and hands it to the guy. “That’ll be thirty-two bucks.”

“Yeah, sure pal. You’re a lifesaver!” The guy yanks two twenties out of his wallet and thrusts them at Bucky, spinning around and leaving before Bucky can give him his change.

“That’s me,” Bucky sighs, “Saving relationships from idiots like you everywhere.” The rest of the day goes calmly, a surprise rush hitting around noon. Bucky notices a moving van out of the corner of his eye, employees of the moving company moving large boxes into the empty unit next door.

“I heard it’s going to be a tattoo parlour,” The customer says, grinning. “It’ll be so nice to have one in the neighbourhood!”

Bucky smiles at them. “Yeah,” he says, flexing his shoulder, “It will be.” He’s been meaning to get his sleeve touched up but he hasn’t wanted to go out of his way. He resigned himself to just letting it fade but the prospect of getting it touched up has a grin on his face for the rest of the day.

During a lull in the rush, Bucky catches a glimpse of one of the soon-to-be employees of the tattoo parlour - he assumes - and his jaw nearly drops open. The guy is _hot_. Blond hair and scruff for days, biceps the size of Bucky’s head, and a grin that makes Bucky’s heart stutter. “Jeez…” He mutters under his breath, watering the flowers around the store and keeping watch on the guy out of the corner of his eye.

A woman with short red hair walks up to the guy and punches him on the shoulder, saying something that Bucky can’t make out from where he’s standing. The guy laughs and pulls her into a hug, kissing her on the cheek and resting his chin on the top of her head. _Heterosexuality no,_ Bucky thinks, mood falling.

“It’s always the hot ones,” he sighs, turning away and going back to the counter.

His back is turned so he doesn’t see the red-headed woman point in his direction, nor does he see the hot guy he was ogling moments earlier look at him and turn pink, jaw dropping open.

~~~~~~

Bucky doesn’t see the hot guy again for a couple weeks. He mostly forgets about him, but occasionally he’ll find himself staring out the window searching for him. Bucky always just shakes his head and looks away when that happens.

And then one day, the redhead comes into his shop. “Hi, welcome to KaBloom! Can I help you find anything?” Be civil, Bucky. It’s not her fault you have a crush on her boyfriend.

“We just opened up the tattoo parlour next door,” she says, smiling at him, “We were hoping to get some flowers to stick on our receptionist’s desk? You got anything that would work for that?”

Bucky grins. “Sure do.” He heads over to the anthuriums and gestures towards them. “These go nice with pretty much every aesthetic, not to mention they smell good. They also symbolize hospitality and abundance, which I’m hoping will help you guys out, not that you’ll need it.”

She chuckles. “Those look perfect. I’m Natasha, by the way.”

Bucky plucks a few choice flowers from the group and ties them in a nice ribbon. “Bucky. You got any other artists over there, or is it just you?” He hands her the flowers and they walk to the till together.

“There’s me and Clint who are the main artists, but we also have our friend Wanda in occasionally. She does the really intricate pieces that would take up a lot of time. Her brother’s apprenticing with us right now actually - he wants to join us once he’s done school.”

“Keeping the talent close, I see,” Bucky teases, punching in her order. “That’ll be twenty bucks.” Natasha hands him the money and leaves, waving goodbye over her shoulder.

After the door closes, Bucky sighs. “I can’t even hate her, she’s so nice.”

~~~~~~

The next day, a different young woman comes in. “Are you Bucky?” She asks hesitantly.

“That’s me,” Bucky confirms, pushing a lock of sweaty hair off his forehead. “What can I do for you?”

“It’s my mother’s birthday this weekend and I wanted to get her favourite flowers. Do you have orchids, by any chance?” She’s very twitchy, and Bucky is careful to not move too fast as he gets up.

“Sure do,” he says, “They’re just over there. I can help you pick some out if you want.” She shakes her head and wanders over to the orchids, trailing her fingers over the petals. Bucky shrugs and continues repotting some of his bigger plants.

He hoists a beautiful young fern out of its pot and walks across the floor, depositing it in a bigger pot carefully. “There you go, precious,” he strokes a leaf with the pad of his finger, “Now you have lots of room to stretch out your roots.”

“Bucky?” He turns around to see the young woman with a couple of orchids in pots standing behind him. “I think I’m ready to go,” she says.

“Sure,” he says easily, punching in her order and telling her the total. She hands over the money and starts to leave, then hesitates. “Somethin’ wrong?” Bucky asks.

She shakes her head. “I’m Wanda. From SHIELD? Natasha says hi.”

“Oh, you’re the artist who does intricate work, right?” She nods. “Do you think you could help me touch this up? It’s been a while since I had it done and I want to get some of the edges sharpened.” He rolls up his sleeve to reveal an overlapping metal pattern that goes all the way up his arm, stopping at his shoulder.

“That’s a beautiful piece,” Wanda says, coming closer. “Who’s it by?”

“No one you’d know,” Bucky says, shoving back the memories.

“Well, I can’t be sure until I see the whole thing, but this looks like more Clint’s thing than mine, honestly. He’s better with this sort of tattoo. I mostly do intricate small things? I wouldn’t want to mess it up and I’m not confident enough to attempt something this nice on my own yet.” She smiles apologetically.

“No worries,” Bucky says, rolling his sleeve back down, “I’ll pop by SHIELD sometime and talk to this Clint. Tell Natasha she’s welcome back anytime, as are you, to grab more flowers or for a chat.”

“I will,” Wanda says, “Have a nice day, Bucky.”

“You too, Wanda.” Bucky waves goodbye and looks down at his arm, the tattoo covered by his shirt once again. He flexes his arm and pictures the way the tattoo ripples when he does that, making it look like the metal plates are shifting. He really should make that appointment.

~~~~~~

Two days after Wanda, a young man who can only be her brother comes zipping into the shop. “Bucky! I’m Pietro. I work at SHIELD. Well, not technically, but that’s my plan. To work there once I’m done school. Natasha sent me over to get some more flowers for the front. She said to just pick a few out and ask if you could drop them off when you have a minute. They’re really busy today.”

“Sure,” Bucky shrugs. “She got any requests?”

Pietro grins at him. “She said something purple? Gotta get back, pop by with those whenever and we’ll pay you!” He zips out the door in a blur, the bell dinging uselessly above it.

“That kid needs to stop with the caffeine,” Bucky mutters. He wanders around the shop, trying to find something purple. “Who the fuck wants purple flowers anyway?” He finds a few purple carnations and tulips, and puts them into a little vase. Flipping the ‘Open’ sign over and sticking his ‘Back in 5 minutes’ sign over top of it, he walks over to SHIELD and opens the door.

Bucky doesn’t know what he’s expecting. Certainly not what he got, though. SHIELD is nicely organized, various artist’s works framed on the walls. Bucky walks inside and puts the vase on the reception desk, then continues looking around. From what he can see, all the artists have their own workstations, and there are a few doors that he assumes to be leading to rooms where people can go to get tattoos in intimate or uncomfortable places.

“Thanks for bringing those over, how much do we -” Bucky turns around at the unfamiliar voice and has to stop himself from blinking like a moron. It’s the hot guy Bucky was ogling when the parlour moved in. Bucky’s eyes trail over his body, sticking on his biceps - which are surprisingly not as tattooed as Bucky would have thought - and eventually making their way to his face. He would be embarrassed about checking the guy out so blatantly, but Hot Guy is doing the same thing.

“Twenty-five bucks,” Bucky says softly, holding back a grin as Hot Guy’s eyes snap up and a faint blush turns his nose pink.

“Yep, got it,” Hot Guy says, jabbing a few buttons on their cash register and pulling out the required money. “I’m Clint, by the way,” he offers.

“You’re Clint!” Bucky says. He’s not surprised, per se, but he certainly wasn’t expecting _this_ to be the Clint Wanda mentioned. “Think you’d be able to help me out with this?” Bucky rolls up his sleeve again and flexes his arm, showing off his tattoo.

“Beautiful piece,” Clint comments absently, leaning in close. Bucky resolutely ignores the feeling of Clint’s breath on his skin. “What were you thinking of doing?”

“Just getting it touched up,” Bucky pulls his arm away and rolls his sleeve back down, “Some of the metal plate edges are not as sharp as I’d like them to be.”

“Yeah, I can help you out with that. When you available to come in?” Clint is suddenly all business, looking at Bucky with a new kind of intensity in his eyes.

Bucky flounders for a minute, unused to being the focus of such a good looking specimen. “Uh… I close up at five most days and I can’t do Thursdays ever, but other than that, I’m pretty much free whenever.”

“Great!” Clint flips through a calendar with his name on it. “Does the first Tuesday of next month ‘round five thirty work for you? It’s the first day I’ve got enough time to do the whole thing in one go if that’s what you want.”

“It’s a date,” Bucky says, “See you then.” He waves goodbye to Natasha, who’s just come out of the back room and leaves, heading back to his shop.

~~~~~~

The next week passes by pretty slowly. It doesn’t help that Clint comes into KaBloom nearly every day and Bucky gets  _this much_  closer to falling for the guy every time he sees him. Bucky _knows_ Clint is with Natasha, but he can’t help it. Clint is funny and kind and he has nice arms and - “Hey, James! Looking extra good today.”

Shit. “Hi, Mr. Rumlow. How are you?” Bucky pastes a smile on his face and prays to anyone who might be listening to get him the fuck out of there.

“I’ve told you to call me Brock, James,” Rumlow says faux-sternly.

“Sorry,” Bucky says, internally rolling his eyes. “What can I get for you today?”

“You. If that’s not on the menu, I need some roses. Preferably red, if you’ve got them, and also some blue tulips and daisies as well.” Rumlow keeps up idle chatter as Bucky gets those for him, and Bucky rolls his eyes at the blatant flirting - if you can even call it flirting. It’s got all the finesse of a bull in a china shop, and none of the appeal. “So, what would you say to going on a date with me?” Rumlow says, leering.

“I would give you the same answer I gave before,” Bucky says firmly, “No. I’m not looking for a relationship right now.”

“Bet I could change your mind,” Rumlow says, smirking.

Bucky shakes his head. “Look Mr. Rumlow -”

“Brock.”

“- Mr. Rumlow, I’m not interested in you like that. Please stop asking.”

Rumlow suddenly loses all cover of friendship and snarls at him. “So you think you can be a tease and not follow through? What if I decide to make you?”

“Then you would  be making a severe mistake.” Bucky’s eyes snap towards the door and see Clint standing there, looking furious. His arms are crossed, and how did Bucky never notice how ripped Clint was until now? “I suggest you leave before I decide to protect my boyfriend and _make_ you leave.” Clint stalks forward, nothing but aggression in his stance as he comes nose-to-nose with Rumlow. Well, chin-to-nose, really. He’s taller than Rumlow by a couple of inches.

“Since when did you get a boyfriend, James?” Rumlow asks, eyes not leaving Clint.

“We’ve been together for almost a year now, Mr. Rumlow, and I really suggest you do as he says. He’s put men in the hospital for less.” Bucky heads to the door and pulls it open, gesturing outside.

“Fine,” Rumlow growls. He throws the flowers on the ground and stomps out. Bucky doesn’t relax until his silhouette as disappeared down the street.

“Thanks, Clint,” Bucky says, turning to find Clint crouched down picking up the wilted flowers. “I owe you one.”

“Don’t mention it,” Clint says, handing over the flowers. “That guy come around much?”

Bucky shrugs. “Once a week or so. He’s never threatened me like that before though, usually just takes my no at face value, pays for his flowers and leaves.” He fiddles with the flowers, trying to get them looking presentable. Eventually, he gives up. “They’re unsalvageable. Now I have to throw them out. Ugh, I hate wasting flowers as gorgeous as these.”

“So don’t,” Clint shrugs, pulling out his wallet, “How much for them?”

Bucky stares. “You… want them? They’re destroyed!”

Clint grins sheepishly. “They’re not destroyed, just a little battered. I do my best work with battered things.” Bucky falls a little harder for him in that moment. “So, how much?”

“Five bucks.” Clint raises an eyebrow at him. “Hey, they’re battered and think of it as a thank you discount for helping me get Rumlow out of my hair this time.” Clint huffs, but he hands over the money and takes the flowers, lingering in the store.

“Hey, why’d you come over here in the first place?” Bucky asks, curious.

“No reason,” Clint dismisses quickly. “Later, Bucky.” Before Bucky can respond, Clint leaves abruptly.

“Alright then,” Bucky says. “I’m a little confused.”

~~~~~~

**Clint**

Clint doesn’t know what to _do_. He has a major crush on Bucky but the guy said he wasn’t looking for a relationship right now! Clint doesn’t want to be _that_ asshole. He just kicked that asshole out of Bucky’s shop!

“Nat, I don’t know what to _do_!” Clint wails, throwing himself onto her chair.

“Just buy the guy some flowers and ask respectfully if he would like to go on a date,” Natasha rolls her eyes. “Not that hard, Barton.”

“But he said he wasn’t looking for a relationship right now,” Clint whines.

“He said that to a guy who was clearly harassing him, and you even had to chase that guy out of his shop. I would take anything he said to him with a grain of salt.” Nat says dryly. She has a point, Clint thinks.

“Nat, I’ve been half in love with this guy since you pointed him out when we moved in and it got worse when he brought purple flowers over and even worse when he looks surprised that I wanted those battered flowers!” Clint groans. “Tell me what to do!”

“I already told you what to do, Clint,” Nat says, irritated, “Not my fault you didn’t listen.”

“I’m going to buy flowers.” Clint jumps up and heads out the door. “So many flowers!” He yells behind him. He strides into KaBloom and up to the counter with a determined look on his face.

“Hi, Clint,” Bucky says warmly, smiling shyly at him. Clint forgets everything he was going to do. He forgets his own name.

“Flowers,” he says blankly, “I need flowers.”

Bucky’s face falls a little bit but he pulls it back up and grins. “Sure, anything specific?”

“Surprise me.” Clint can barely remember how to form words, let alone the names of flowers. Bucky grins at him, effectively rebooting Clint’s brain, and moves around the shop, collecting flowers as he goes.

“What’s the occasion?” Bucky asks.

“Need new ones for the front desk,” Clint manages, blindly following Bucky around.

“Not going to give them to your girlfriend?”

Clint blinks. “I don’t have a girlfriend.”

Bucky stares at him, frozen. “But I thought you and Natasha were -”

“Natasha?” Clint laughs until he cries. “No way man, she’s like a sister to me.”

“Oh,” Bucky says. Clint can’t read his expression. “Cool! Well, these should do it. They’re gardenias, if you’re curious.” Bucky rings them up and Clint pays, absently saying goodbye and leaving. He rushes back into SHIELD, holding his flowers like they’re precious. Because they are.

“Did you ask him out?” Wanda asks, looking up from a customer’s arm.

Clint stops dead. “I just bought flowers,” he says weakly, holding them forwards.

Wanda looks at them and smiles indulgently, turning back to her customer.“They’re beautiful, Clint.”

Natasha walks up to him and takes the flowers, admiring them. She starts to give them back and then stops, looking at the flowers again suspiciously. “What?” Clint asks.

“Nothing,” she says, holding back a grin. “I still think you should ask him out.”

“I’m going back tomorrow!” Clint yells as she walks away. Staring at the flowers, he mumbles, “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

~~~~~~

Clint does not ask Bucky out the next day. He does, however, get more flowers. Acacias, this time.

The next five times Clint goes into KaBloom with the intention to ask Bucky on a date, he leaves tongue-tied and with more flowers. Bucky gives him daffodils, jonquils - those are a real flower, Clint looked them up - hibiscus’, purple roses - those are still Clint’s favourite - and these tulips that are a bunch of different colours - Bucky calls them variegated tulips, Clint remembers later.

He brings the flowers to Nat for inspection every time, and she just gets more and more amused, especially when he complains to her about Bucky not feeling the same way about Clint that Clint does about him.

Clint doesn’t get what’s funny. Nat thinks he’s moping but he’s not. He’s just… contemplative. Yeah. Clint is contemplating how he can get Bucky to like him.

And then Bucky’s appointment is that day and Clint putters around SHIELD, straightening things and generally being a nuisance until Nat snaps at him to sit in a corner and calm down. He keeps himself occupied by drawing Bucky’s tattoo over and over until he has it memorized, and then he starts making little changes that he plans to suggest to Bucky.

Pietro’s shout of “Bucky!” makes him snap his head up so fast that his neck cracks. He hurries towards the front, stepping out and grinning at Bucky. “Bucky! There you are! C’mon, I’ve got a room set up for you.” Bucky blinks at him and follows him back, and Clint takes deep breathes to center himself.

He nearly chokes on his own tongue when he turns around and finds Bucky sitting in his chair with no shirt on.

~~~~~~

**Bucky**

Bucky’s appointment looms over his head for the whole day when it arrives. He stumbles through interactions with customers and nearly charges four different people the wrong amount. When the day finally comes to a close, Bucky is relieved. He closes up KaBloom and heads over to SHIELD.

He walks in and is immediately greeted by Pietro and Wanda, who are chatting at the front of the parlour. “Bucky!” Pietro shouts, zipping over to him and giving him a fist bump, then speeding back over to his sister.

“Hey, Pietro,” Bucky says softly. He’s a little on edge because he hasn’t been in a tattoo shop in a while, and it's bringing up some memories he’d rather not remember.

“Bucky! There you are!” Clint’s voice brings Bucky out of a slight daze and he blinks. “C’mon, I’ve got a room set up for you.” Bucky follows Clint to the room silently, shucking off his shirt once he’s inside and sitting down on the chair. “Straight to business, then,” Clint jokes, pulling out his materials.

Bucky takes a few deep breaths, trying to ignore the growing pressure on his chest. He must be louder than he thought because suddenly Clint is crouched in front of him holding out his hands and speaking soothingly.

“Hey, you’re okay. It’s just me, your friendly neighbourhood Clint. You’re in a room in my tattoo parlour, and you’re safe here, Bucky.” Clint keeps talking and Bucky latches onto his voice like a life preserver, using it to drag himself out of the impending panic attack he can feel closing in on him.

He gets a hold of himself and shakes his head fiercely. “Thanks. You didn’t have to do that.” He winces at how short his tone is, but Clint doesn’t seem to mind.

“Don’t mention it. You wanna reschedule?”

Bucky shakes his head. “No. Gotta get through this now or I’ll never get it done.”

Clint hesitates. “Was it the needles? Or something I did? I don’t want you to have to go through that again.”

Bucky laughs breathlessly. “Nothing you did, and not the needles either. The original artist is dead.” Why is he talking about this? “I got it done overseas and when I went back to have it finished, the place blew up right after I left. I got pretty beat up so they sent me home. I just never went back.” He shrugs halfheartedly, not meeting Clint’s eyes.

“Thank you for trusting me with that, Bucky,” Clint says, a little half-smile on his face. “Are you good to get started then?” Bucky nods and relaxes his arm consciously, averting his eyes as Clint starts the needles. “Do you prefer to talk, be talked to, or silence while we do this?” Clint’s tone is light, conversational even, and Bucky loves him all the more for it.

And isn’t  _that_ a revelation. “Talk to me. Distract me with something,” Bucky says absently. Clint starts talking, and Bucky lets his voice fill the spaces between the buzzing. He’s still stunned at the revelation he just had. He can’t possible love Clint, can he? They’ve only really known each other for a month and a half or so.

“- And that’s how I became the owner of a one-eyed pizza dog,” Clint says, looking up at Bucky and grinning.

Bucky blinks. “Sorry, I missed that. Zoned out for a while there.” Clint’s face falls and Bucky winces. “You could tell me again over lunch?” He offers, holding his breath.

“As long as it’s pizza,” Clint says, grinning. Bucky smiles back and closes his eyes, letting the buzzing of the tattoo machine wash over him.  
~~~~~~

Bucky stares at himself in the mirror. “Something’s missing.”

A sock hits him in the back of the head. “Flowers, you moron.” Bucky glares at Steve half-heartedly, whipping the sock back at him.

“I can’t bring him flowers! I run a flower shop, for crying out loud.” Bucky snorts. “That’s just lazy writing.”

Steve blinks. “Who's writing?”

“It’s a figure of speech you fuck,” Bucky says impatiently.

Steve rolls his eyes. “Just bring him flowers, Buck. He does like flowers, doesn’t he?”

“He seemed to like the ones I’ve picked out for him so far,” Bucky says hesitantly, chewing on his bottom lip.

“There you go then,” Steve says, “Get him flowers.”

Bucky nods decisively and walks out of his room, ruffling Steve’s hair on his way by. “Wish me luck, punk!”

“Good luck! Jerk.”

Bucky smirks. He quickly makes his way from his apartment to KaBloom, unlocking the door and stepping inside. It’s amazing how much of an effect this place has on his mood, Bucky muses. He’s barely been here for a few seconds and already, he’s feeling calmer. Bucky picks out some delphiniums, moonflowers, orange roses and yellow tulips and arranges them nicely, then adds in some lime blossoms for the hell of it. A guy can dream, right?

Whistling, Bucky walks over to the address Clint gave him and presses the buzzer, walking inside and up the stairs when the door opens. He knocks on the door and steps back, waiting. Clint pulls open the door and grins at him. “Hey, Buc -” He freezes and his mouth drops open. “Is this a date?” He blurts.

Bucky freezes. “It was supposed to be?” He offers. “It’s cool if that’s not what you had in mind though, I get it. Here, these are for you.” He shoves the flowers at Clint and walks away, tears brimming in his eyes. How could he be such a moron? Obviously, Clint didn’t think this was a date. He probably just thought Bucky wanted to be his bro. Bucky angrily scrubs at his eyes, making it outside and starting to walk away.

“Bucky, hold on!” He can hear Clint calling him but he doesn’t want Clint to see him like this. “Bucky, wait! C’mon man, not all of us are good at running!” Bucky sighs, and knowing he’s probably going to regret this, turns around. “Oh thank god,” Clint pants, catching up to him and putting his hands on his knees. “I could not have run much further. You can move when you want to, shit.”

“What do you want, Clint?” Bucky asks shortly. “I’m not in the mood to be made fun of.”

Clint looks at him, shocked. “No, I wouldn’t make fun of you! C’mon, Bucky, you really think I’d do that?”

“No,” Bucky admits grudgingly.

“I wouldn’t,” Clint says earnestly. “I’m sorry about how I reacted back there, I was just surprised. I didn’t think you were even interested in me, that’s all.” He shrugs self-deprecatingly.

“Not interested in -” Bucky stares incredulously. “Clint, I’ve been giving you flowers that signify secret love or affection for the past month and a half.”

“Technically, I’ve been buying them,” Clint says weakly. 

Bucky rolls his eyes. “I’m in love with you, you moron.”

“Hey!” Clint yelps. “Only Natasha gets to call me names. Well, Natasha and my boyfriend, not that I have one of those.”

“Would you like one?” Bucky offers tentatively, looking at his feet.

“Are you offering?” Clint asks, shock evident in his voice.

“Yes, I’m offering, you putz!” Bucky says, laughing at Clint’s relieved look.

“Oh,” Clint grins, “Then I accept.” The two of them stand there awkwardly for a few seconds, and then Clint rolls his eyes. “This is ridiculous,” he says. He yanks Bucky into a kiss, backing him into a wall.

Bucky freezes for a few seconds and right when Clint goes to pull away, Bucky snaps out of it and starts reciprocating, pressing his lips against Clint’s gently. He swallows Clint’s sigh and deepens the kiss, hands coming up to cup Clint’s face.

“That was…” Clint says, dazed, as he pulls away.

“Really nice,” Bucky says, clearing his throat.

“That. Definitely that.” Clint nods furiously.

“So, you still want to go for lunch?” Bucky asks, taking Clint’s hand and swinging their entwined hands between them as they walk back to Clint’s apartment.

“I would very much like to lunch you. Date lunch. Fuck.” Clint drops his head onto Bucky’s shoulder and Bucky laughs. “I would like to go on a lunch date with you, Bucky,” Clint says, enunciating every word.

“I’m glad,” Bucky says, pressing a kiss to Clint’s knuckles and enjoying the pink blush that spreads across his boyfriend's - boyfriend!! Clint’s his boyfriend!! - face.

“It still has to be pizza!” Clint says loudly, staring at Bucky determinedly.

Bucky grins. “Whatever you want, Clint. Whatever you want.”

“Wait, did the flowers you brought today have special meaning?” Clint asks curiously.

Bucky nods. “The delphiniums represent ardent attachment and joy, the moonflowers represent dreaming of love, orange roses are desire or passion and yellow tulips mean hope.”

“What about the little ones?”

Bucky grins and leans in close to Clint’s ear, relishing Clint’s shiver when Bucky’s breath hits his ear. “Lime blossoms. For fornication.” Clint lets out a shout of laughter, eyes sparkling with mirth.

“Getting your hopes up, Buck?” He asks, grinning.

“A guy can dream, can’t he?” Bucky responds. He pulls Clint into another kiss - it doesn’t work out so well because they’re both grinning, but Bucky loves it. And by the look on his face when Bucky pulls away, Clint isn’t averse to buying Bucky some lime blossoms of his own.


End file.
